Google Putting Out Wildfire; Facebook Service Threatens PMDs

Google is rolling Wildfire’s technology into its DoubleClick platform but will leave companies such as Amazon and Cisco looking for a new social media management company. (Read AdExchanger’s June 2013 interview with Google’s Neal Mohan about the integration.) Adweek’s Garett Sloane writes, “Customers can continue to use the existing Wildfire tools, but they are expected to move to other social management services. The Wildfire technology will be integrated into DoubleClick so that advertisers there can use the social signals to inform their digital ad buys.” Wildfire has been turned into an attribution solution by GOOG. Read on. And more on the Wildfire blog.

PMD Threat

In TechCrunch, Josh Constine posits that Facebook may be on the verge of competing with its PMD partners through its new Business Manager product, which Constine calls Facebook’s “latest step in the long-running commodification of Facebook marketing services.” Read it. This can’t be a surprise to some PMD partners who have been living a charmed life by offering access to red-hot Facebook inventory, data, etc., and providing little value on top of it.

Bridging Online And TV Advertising

Programmatic TV platform AudienceXpress and real-time analytics provider Neustar Inc. announced a partnership that will deepen insight into the consumer preference of television audiences. Neustar SVP Ted Prince says in a release that “viewers have expanded beyond TV and are increasingly consuming content across multiple screens and channels. The challenge for advertisers is to effectively bridge the gap between online and offline audiences to maximize reach.” Read the release.

Don’t Test Me

Doug Weaver, CEO and founder of Upstream Group, expresses his disapproval of the word “test” as it pertains to marketing because it only allows for short-term thinking. It also allows agencies to minimize risk without real commitment to the strategy. Weaver suggests that if companies are told that they will be tested that they should force the agency to talk about a long-term relationship or walk away. Read more on his blog.

Buying Video Ads

A UK-based online video ad company called Coull is emerging on the programmatic scene and just raised $4 million in angel funding. According to CEO Irfon Watkins’ LinkedIn profile, the company has been around since 2003. The company says it puts overlays on videos that allow users to click on products and buy them directly from the ad and, according to TechCrunch, also claims a new hire: “Michelle Melisaratos, former lead of Xaxis’ AdOps function and more recently Director of Program Management internationally at Yahoo. Michelle takes the role of Global Head of Programmatic AdOps.” Read more.

Maxifier Broaches Buy-Side Optimization

Maxifier launched a new buy-side optimization platform, ADMAX TRADE, that increases visibility and control across ad campaigns by offering rapid optimization on a single platform. The advanced campaign-optimization platform showed strong results for one network’s beta testing. Maxifier’s CEO Denise Colella confirmed that although this opens the door to the buy side, “optimization is at the heart of ADMAX TRADE.” Learn more.